The Blog

Regulatory cooperation in TTIP

One of the hottest topics today are the negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and making EU and US regulations more compatible is at the heart of the TTIP. The European Commission (EC) has indicaded some of the reasons about why the regulatory cooperation is important in the TTIP. Here we are sharing some of them:

I)Making regulations more compatible in the EU and the US will lower the costs of trading across the Atlantic which means that companies will be able to reach new customers and grow their businesses. Even though the TTIP will focus on sectors that employs over 30 million people in EU, SMEs will be the biggest beneficiaries, since they are enormously affected by the regulatory barriers of trade.

II)For those who think that TTIP will mean lower levels of protection or safety, EC is very clear saying that this is not true. EU and the US are recognized for having the highest quality regulation in the world, which means stronger enforcement of rules.This cooperation will help to make sure that the products imported from other countries will follow the standards. However, it will not allow products on the EU market that do not meet EU requirements. This is the case of REACH, when looking at the chemical sector.

EU and the US regulate chemicals in different ways. While in REACH registration and comprehensive data must be submitted, in TSCA such registration or data is not required. Here then, TTIP is not going to change the legislation. Substances/mixtures placed in the EU need to be compliant with REACH regardless of whether they can be marketed or used in the US

iii) Since we live in a global economy, TTIP will push to the development, update and implementation of the standards. Example of this are the Electrical cars. EU and the US authorities are already working on common standards for plugs and infrastructure that will be needed to make them work on a large scale.